If you are an Android fan you might most probably be aware of the fact that, for the past 3 years Google has been launching a flagship phone every year. Contrary to the phones sold by individual handset manufacturers, these Google flagship phones are ‘pure Android’ phones without any customization (includes user interface, looks, features, etc) by handset manufacturers (for ex. sense & touch wiz by HTC and Samsung respectively).
You may ask what’s the advantage of going for Google’s nexus phone instead of other available Android handsets in the market? Well one among many other advantage is, as a nexus phone user you get to use their latest OS update before any other handsets receive the software update.
Google Nexus Phones for 2012:
In the past 3 years, Google launched 3 flagship devices in collaboration with HTC and Samsung. But if the rumor mill is to be believed, there are 5 Nexus devices scheduled to be launched this year in tie-up with HTC, Samsung and LG among other manufacturers. Below is a quick look on 3 of the 5 devices that are leaked on the internet.
Google Nexus 5 – 5” Nexus from HTC
Google Nexus 5 is one among the 3 leaked devices that, as per rumors, would be manufactured by HTC spotting a 5” screen, Quad Core Snap Dragon S4 Processor, Full HD video recording support, 4G LTE, 12MP and 2MP rear and front cameras respectively.
Galaxy Nexus 2
Successor to Google’s current flagship phone – Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy Nexus 2 is another phone that is expected to be announced along with other nexus products. This successor of Galaxy nexus is said to have processor and camera improvements along with support for extending the phone’s memory via memory card.
Here is an image from SamMobile.com comparing the specs of Galaxy Nexus, Samsung Galaxy S3 and the Galaxy Nexus 2 which is code named as GT-I9260.
Recently GSMArena also reported that a camera sample of Galaxy Nexus 2 (as shown below) was leaked on a photo sharing website with the EXIF data confirming that the pic was taken from Samsung GT-I9260.
LG Optimus Nexus
Lately the details of LG’s Nexus were leaked by a Spanish publication which reveals that LG would be contributing a nexus device too to the next Nexus line of products. Though not much details about its specifications are leaked, we have learnt that the phone would spot a 4.7-inch WXGA True HD IPS Plus display with 1280 x 768 resolution.
Lets just hope the above rumor of 5 new nexus phones turns out to be true. Keep checking this space for any further updates and more information on nexus related leaks.
(Update: Google has officially announced a new Nexus device – Google Nexus 4. Read more here.)
Release dates? 2012 is almost over.
Apple kind of spoiled it for everyone. They are not going to release it this year now I think.
Ha ha. Though I still have intuitions that LG has some potential to be the next best Android phone manufacturer after Samsung.
Ps: Personally own an Optimus 😉
Why can’t we have these phones already! Google shouldn’t let Apple have the entire holiday season without a fresh Nexus in the mix!
hopefully those five devices don’t include the nexus 7
Yes, those 5 devices include nexus 7 AND nexus Q.
Sorry, but that isn’t the fact if rumors and market experts are to be believed.
Rumors and “market experts” have all indicated 5 “nexus” devices “this year”. Not 5 all at once.
Yes. (y)
LG are you listening? 😛
Nope, they don’t.
You are incorrect.
I find these rumored devices to be highly unlikely. For one, the differences between the i9250 and i9260 are negligible. Dual-core A9 to Dual-core A9… same display… a numbers-game-only on the camera (phone camers reach their practical limit at no higher than 5 MP). The ONLY real difference is an added sdcard.
To compare all three suggested devices… 5″, 4.65″, 4.7″… no significant difference there. You can quibble a bit on some of the very MINOR specifications, but the only one of the three that has any REAL advantage is the 5″, which is running a vastly superior CPU, a quad-core A15. Being otherwise the same as the other two, why would anyone pick anything else? No, sorry, don’t expect the prices to be so far out of line as to make any difference.
If Google is, in fact, going to be bringing 3-5 new nexus devices to market this fall (because we can’t be sure if the nexus 7 and Q are counted in the “5” or not), you can be sure that there are going to be some more dramatic differences between them. Like maybe a difference size or form factor. Ranging from 4.7″ to 5″ isn’t a distinction, its negligible.
The fact is, that a lot of people actually DISLIKE the oversized screens. What’s wrong with a 4″ screen? If they want to appeal to a larger buyer base, they need to appeal to more people, and this is accomplished by having multiple DISTINCT products, not 3 that all seem about the same. There is also the market that needs or requires a for-real keyboard rather than those on screen toys.
If you want to build a decent rumor, take a look at the Samsung T699, which is currently sold by tmobile US as the “Galaxy S Relay 4G”. A 4″ unit running a dual-core A15 processor (which performs head-to-head with quad-core A9’s) and having a very solid 5-row slide-out keyboard. If they want to distinguish themselves, this, or something very much like it.
I believe that this is a much more likely line-up;
A significantly enhanced replacement for the galaxy nexus in the range of 4.6-5.0″ in either quad-A9 or dual-A15,
A smaller high end keyboard slider similar to the T699 in dual-A15,
A middle-of-the-road/affordable ~4″ with a dual-A9.
About those 3 similar HTC/LG/Sammy phones… I’m going to go out on a limb and theorize that each of these rumors was hatched by fans of each of those three brands. They came up with what they were told is the “hottest specs”, slapped on their favorite brand name, and your rumor has been launched.